counting our blessings

Sorry that the pic is so dark, but this is a pic of my district, the day before Sora Gibbons left. It goes left to right, Elder Toronto, Elder Vogelsberg, me, Sora Owen, and Sora Gibbons.


Hello family and everyone! How are you? I'm doing pretty good.

The work lately has been stressful, but at the same time very rewarding even if all the rewards are yet to come. We are sitting here counting our blessings - the first that it has gotten up to 22 degrees Celsius! w00t! (that's around 71 F and it was exciting).

Our investigators are now at the hardest part of the fight. Yesterday we fasted with Vatuta along with some of the members that know her that she will know what to say to her husband and that he will be on the positive side to her getting baptized. We talked about how it takes faith for miracles to occur, but that it is possible through our faith and with the power of God. "Right now we are in need of a miracle" we told her, and she agreed and has such great faith that this will work. So do we. We need a miracle, and with consistant actions of faith, we believe that we will get one.

With Ion, we have eliminated the middle ground. We talked to him about God's desires and how God wants him to recieve salvation through baptism, and how Satan's desires for him to not do this. Our life on earth consists of us choosing if we will follow God and fulfill His desire, or if we won't and will fulfill Satan's desire. Disclaimer: fulfilling Satan's desire doesn't mean that you are following Satan, because you might still be trying to follow God, but you're just not doing all that is necessary. And when you know the things that are necessary and you don't do them, this gives Satan more power.

After all we do to teach, ultimately, it is their decision. Our prayers are poured out continually for them, and we pray that they will see the blessings.

I have been blessed to be able to see the blessings of living this Restored Gospel in my life. It truly is the source of every single joy in every single day that I live. I was so sad to hear about Grandma Coy's passing. Yes, my mission President was able to relate the news to me, and in so doing expressed his love and condolences to me and all of you. But even though I will miss my Grandma dearly, I have so much joy in the knowledge that through the power of the Lord's priesthood, we will be a family for eternity, and that this is not the end.

Even though we will feel like we lack so much now, our Father in Heaven has promised us that we will have all that we miss, all that we lack, and so much more if we live faithfull to His word. This is my goal: to live faithfully so that when I meet with my God and my family again on the other side of the veil, I will not be denied the eternal joy of living with them forever in the kingdom of God. This goal is possible to achieve through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Through His love, we will be able to conquer death in His footsteps and rise to a fulness of joy that never again will pass away.

Also possible through His atoning sacrifice is healing. The fact that we hurt now is understood by Him who passed through all manner of suffering - including exactly what we suffer now. He understands us and is standing with His arms open trying to gather us in so that He may heal us. I have felt the healing power of His loving embrace, and I know that it has power to give us strength when we have none.

It has the most amazing feeling of peace, and if you have not yet experienced this peace and this love, I invite you with all my soul to turn to Him in prayer so that He might carry your burden and take away the pain. Just as healing is possible, so is the hope of eternal joy. This is what matters - eternity. And we are here building the foundation of this great work of our eternal lives.

Some crazy stories for this week:
On Tuesday at about 8:05 am we got a call and learned that Sora Gibbons, a member of our companionship was needed in Bucuresti ASAP to finish serving the transfer over there. So we dropped everything, and within 1 1/2 hours we were on a bus to Buc. It took 4 hours to get there, we got off, and with only a 1/2 hr at our disposal, dropped her off with her new companion, scarffed down some McDonald's and ran down the street to the next bus and were on our way back to Constanta which took another 4 hours. We got to the church 1/2 hour into our first English class. Luckily our branch president and his wife were available to teach our class for the first little bit, and they were a great help, so we got there and said "sorry we're late, but we're your teachers for this class..." and taught. It is amazing.

With the first English class, we have close to 40 students in our beginning class (which is what Sora Owen and I teach) and the Elders have 10-15 students in advanced. It is the most successful English program I've seen so far out here, and everyone stays for our spiritual thoughts that are held afterward. That was exciting.

This week also, the Humanitarian aid missionary couple came down to Constanta and invited us to the celebration of the church putting in heaters into a building that is used for a company called Holt Romania. It is a business that does children and family counseling to help discouraged children to have better opportunities, helps repair marriages, and offers really really cheap parenting classes. They do some neat stuff. And while they were building the vila that it's in, they ran out of money and couldn't use the upper floor for all of their classes because of the lack of heating, so the church, through the Humanitarian aid projects, put in a heating system. There was news coverage and everything. It was neat. This same couple also went to check up on some families la tara (in the country) that had been given goats from the church as their mode of survival, and are now getting off pretty well. It's cool.

On Sunday we had a branch fireside to help the members learn how to share the Book of Mormon with their friends, which went really well. They are excited to do so, and we are excited to hear their success stories. Sora Owen and I were in charge of refreshments, and so we decided to make American style doughnuts, and the Romanians loved them! It was exciting because they are so different from Romanian Gogosi (doughnuts) which includes the ingredients of mashed potatoes, flour, sugar, scalded milk, sugar, and a couple other things. Sooooo yummy, and I'll make them for you when I get home, but the point was that they like the American style ones and it was a success.

Funny funny story, during Sunday School, Sora Boboc (less active) said a comment in class, and another less active Sora Lidia, agreed so much with the comment that she did a kind of attitude snap, like "oh snap!" type of thing, and it was so funny! Comment, blah blah blah, - oh snap! and we laughed...or at least the missionaries. I don't know if the Romanians found it funny, but I've never seen anyone agree with a comment in church like that before..

Ok, last two items of important business, my email address changed - it's getting my old emails forwarded, so don't worry, I got all your emails, but for future reference (because I don't know how long it will forward them) my new email is karina.coy@myldsmail.net. not too different, but good to know.

And Jenna, I looked so hard for how to say "liar, liar pants on fire" and I even asked a couple people, but they didn't know an exact equivelent. So I have a few choices. If I were to directly translate it, it would be : mincinosule, mincinosule, cu pantaloni pe foc. But I don't think Romanians would actually say that. What they do say is either : mincinosul roade osul which means the liar chews the bone, or minciunea are picioarele scurte which means the lie has short legs. There you go.

I love you all so so very much, know that I am doing great and all is well in the work of the Lord. This work can not be stopped, and as we strive to be a part of it, the Lord will bless us greatly. I know this is true - I see it happen every day, and i know that He is holding you in His hands for me. I love you all so so much, and I'll write more next week. Always, --Sora Karina